Drying apparatus for cloth and the like



R. c. PARKES DRYING APPARATUS FOR CLOTH AND THE LIKE Oct. 5, 1943.-

2 Sheets- Sheet 1 Fud Dec. 20, 1941' INVENTOR Oct. 5, 1943. R. c. PARKES DRYING APPARATUS FOR CLOTH AND THE LIKE Filed Dec. 20; 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 RALPH C. Dmguas Y I lllllllllll III] I..l+||.l l

A TTORNE'Y preventing distortion.

Patented Oct. 5, 1943 DRYING APPARATUS FOR CLOTH-AND THE LIKE I I 7 Ralph Parkes, Glenside, Pa. Application December. 20, 1941', Serial No. 423,799 I 4 Claims. (01. 34-160) In the drying of cloth; paper or other web' it has been the practice to build a generally elongated chamber having means at the feed and delivery ends thereof for propelling the cloth or other web to be treated through the chamber, such cloth traveling either in a straight line or in the form of loops, or otherwise, and providing means for supplying hot airand directingf'it against the web during its travel through the drying chamber.

In order to permit the web to be dried, enough dwell must be allowed inthejclrying chamber and for this reasonit is necessary to make the: drying chamber relatively longgandin order to provide a sufiicient volume of hot air it has been the practice to mount at a point exterior to thecharnbehand most generally on the top thereof-a relatively large fan or blower v with relatively large heating units and large ducts leading from the blower housing to the drying chambeh' This practice was disadvantageous infthat .it gr'eatly increased the overall height of the drying apparatus thusresulting'in waste of space, andin that Fig. 6 represents a fragmentary, sectional, per

'spective view showing details of construction.

Referring to the drawings in which like reference characters indicate like parts, 8 designates in generalthe framework or the various supports which carry the casing 8. As seen from Figs. 5. and 2, in which onlya portion of a conventional drying chamber is shown, the drying'chamber is substantially rectangular'andiis rather elongated.

Inlieu' of placing theblower for thejhot airon the'top Ill of the drying chamber, and in lieuof using one such. very large blower'tosup'ply air to the entire drying chambenl utilize a plurality of upper, relativelysmall. blowers l2 and M driven from the common pulley l6 which in turn is driven by the single motor 18. The blowers l2 and M are provided. with the'ducts 20 and 22 which: merge to form 1a single nozzle 24 which opens"downwardly against the upper surface 'of the cloth 26 to be dried. 28 designates afresh airinlet which may be regulated by the valve 3E! and which communicates with the blower housing of each of the blowers l2 and M. 32 designates the air was hottest and most efficient at about 4 the center of the drying chamber where the main volume of hot air was introducedfand still further in thatin orcler to" attain s rname; volume it was necessary greatly to increase the speedof the blower to increase therate ofjfiow of hot air w into the drying chamber. f These latter features result in non-uniform dryin'g in subjecting the fabricto the violence, of rapidly flowing; air thus resulting in distortion oi substantial fabrics which presented sufii'cient resistance or in dama e to more delicate fabrics. 4

It is therefore. the objectlof invention ,to

eliminate the foregoing disadvantages and to provide means for distributing-the hot air uniformly and at. multiple points' ,throughout the. .drying chamber, said means being co'rnpletely I enclosed within any given drying chamber without increasing the overall dimensions thereof,

' an 'exhaust. outlet controlled by the valve 34 so that the fl'ow of air 'into and out of the drying chambermay be controlled. :Below thelcloth Z5 and openingagainst the undersideithereof is another nozzle which is formed by the cornbineddischarge ends of the ducts 2i)" and}? of the lower'blowers I2? andl' i'. (and M designate suitable heating"elements'carried b'ythe brackets, 46 and "disposed within the. ducts of the .upperand lower; blowers for heating" the air blown therethrough Within the upper nozzle 24 are built in and enclosed the deflectors Q3 which arepreferably of the shape shown incross and a further object of, the invention is'to construct an adjustable apparatusbymeans ofwhich the hot air can be blown throughithefabric or .parallel tothe surfaces'thereof, the distribution .and direction of the hot air being such that no undue pressure'is exerted on one side, or at any point onjone side of thefweb being dried thus In the, accompanying drawings;

ig. 1 represents afragmentry top plan view of an apparatusjmbodyi'ngdmy invention, certain parts being broken away [to show' inte'rnal construction. Fig. 2 represents I Fig; 3 represents a section on line' Fig. 4 represents a section on :li

red ma le; rigfiif 35-; err- 1 2. lel'of Fig; 3.

Fig. 5 representsfaviewsimilar to Fig; 4's'howin'gthe apparatus ina different position.

section but which may obviously be made of other shapes as may be desired; The upper deflectors 48 are suitably spaced ,to provide nozzles or jets: 52 therebetween as best seen in Figs. 4 and 6. The upper nozzle 24 and its deflectors 48,

being a continuation'of, or'fsecuredto the discharge ends of'jthe'noz zles l2 and H, are stationary. To the lower stationary nozzletfi are secured the side rails 56 on whichare slidably mounted the channels 49 which carry and en-e close the lower deflectors 50. The sliding movement of the channels 49 (and the deflectors 50 carried thereby) is limited by thepin 58 projecting from the r'ails55 and engaging the slot 60 formed in the lower members 6| of the channels 49. As shown in'Fig. 4; the upper and lower deflectors 48 and 50 are in vertical registration and hence then ozzles 52 and] 54 are likewise in vertical registration. This resultsin balancing the pressure oi the air" emanating from the nozzls52 and 54 in opposite directions toneutr'alizefthe impact of the' airjets on theupper andlower surfacesfof the fabric 26 {When-the fabric 26' is dense sothat it presents substantial resistance, the balance of the air pressure by the registration of the nozzles 52 and 54 prevents distortion of the fabric while the latter is still wet and thus insures the drying of the fabric in a flat and straight, condition. It will be noted that the air emanating from the jets 52 and 54, due to the balancing of the pressures in opposite directions, will be compelled to travel parallel to the upper and lower surfaces of, the web 26 thus insuring efficient drying without penetration of the air through the fabric. When the web or fabric 26 to be dried is not of a hard or dense texture and is open, such as lace or the like, there is no danger of the fabric being distorted by air pressure and, when such fabric is being dried, the channels 49 and the deflectors 56 are moved longitudinally of the fabric into the position shown in 5, in which they nozzles 52 and 54 are out of registration so. that the air. blown through the nozzles 52 will travel in. the direction of the arrow 6.2 while the air blown, through the nozzles 54 travels. in the direction of the arrow 64, or through, the fabric in opposite directions. In order to insure thorough drying of the selvedge of the fabric, which is engaged by the tenterhooks or the like 6.6, the upper nozzle is provided with. the outwardly flared, walls 58 while the vertical walls of the channels 49 cooperating with the lower nozzle 36. are. also flared outwardly as at 68 (see Fig. thus deflecting enoughair to the margin of the web 26. It will be understood that the lower pair. of blowers l2 and M are, driven by a duplication of the mechanism described in connection with the upper blowers I2 and I 4.

It will thus be seen that by utilizing. a plurality of relatively small blowers, which can be enclosed in the space now available within conventional drying chambers, it will be unnecessary to increase the overall height of the drying chamber or to mount a blower on top of the drying chamher which, in order to have the capacity, must be relatively large. As a result of my construction, I apply uniform amounts of air heated, to the same degree to the entire surface of the fabric as distinguished from the construction in which a relatively large blower is disposed substantially centrally of the drying chamber and by means of which no uniform distribution of air or heat is possible. Furthermore, with the use of a single central blower it was necessary toheat the air to a relatively higher degree than would be necessary in my construction. A very important feature of my invention is blowing the relatively moderate amounts of air on the upper and lower surfaces of the fabric simultaneously thus effecting the same degree of dryness which can be obtained only by a much larger and much hotter volume of air. Likewise, the provision of the lower, movable deflectors serves a most important purpose in balancing the air pressure to prevent distortion of the fabric and to provide surface drying or penetration drying as desired.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as. new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1, An apparatus of the character stated comprising a drying chamber, means for propelling a web to be dried through said chamber at a point intermediate the top and bottom thereof, a plurality of pairs of blowers disposed in vertical registration above and below said web, means for driving each of said pairs of blowers, ducts extending from each of said pairsv of blowers towards the opposite faces of said web, upper and lower oppositely disposed and outwardly flaring nozzles at the ends of the ducts of said upper and lower blowers, deflectors mounted in said nozzles, means for fixedly mounting the nozzles on one side of the web, means for slidably mounting the nozzles on the other side of the webfor longitudinal adjustment thereof in a path parallel to the path of the web whereby said upper and lower nozzles may be brought into or out of partial or total vertical registration to produce surface or penertation drying of said web at will and means for adjusting said nozzles.

2. An apparatus of the character stated comprising a drying chamber, means for propelling a webto be dried through said chamber at a point intermediate the top and bottom thereof, a, plurality of pairs of blowers disposed in vertical registration above and below said web, means for driving each of said pairs of blowers, ducts extending from each of said pairs of blowers towards the opposite faces of said web, upper'and lower oppositely opening and outwardly flaring nozzles at the ends of the ducts of said upper and lower blowers, deflectors mounted in said nozzles, means for fixedly mounting the upper of said nozzles, means for slidably mounting the lower of said nozzles for longitudinal adjustment in a path parallel to, the path of said web whereby. the deflectors in said upper and lower nozzles may be brought into or out of partial or total vertical registration, and means for adjusting said lower nozzles.

3. An apparatus of the character stated comprising a drying chamber, means for propelling a web to be dried through said chamber at a point intermediate the top. and bottom thereof, a plurality of pairs of blowers disposed on opposite sides of said web, means for driving each of said pairs of blowers, ducts extending from each of said pairs of blowers towards the opposite faces of said web, oppositely disposed and .outwardly flaring nozzles at the ends of the ducts of said blowers, deflectors mounted in said nozzles, and means for slidably mounting the nozzles on one side of said web for movement relative to the nozzles on the opposite side of said web, in a path substantially parallel to the path of travel of said web,where,by said oppositely disposed nozzles may be. brought into or out of partial or total registration to produce surface or penetration drying of said web at will, and means for adjusting said slidably mounted nozzles.

4. An apparatus of the character stated comprising a drying chamber, means for propelling the web to be dried through said chamber at a point intermediate the top and bottom thereof, a plurality of pairs of blowers disposed in vertical registration above and below said web, means for driving each of said pairs of blowers, ducts extending from each of said pairs of blowers towards the opposite faces of said web, upper and lower oppositely disposed and outwardly flaring nozzles at the ends of the ducts of said upper and lower blowers, deflectors mounted in said nozzles, and means for mounting the nozzles on one side of said web in movable relationship to said web, comprising tracks disposed on one side of said web and means for slidably mounting said last-mentioned nozzles on said tracks, whereby said upper and lower nozzles may be brought into or out, of partial or total vertical registration to produce surface or penetration drying of said ,web. at will. u

. RALPH C. PARKES. 

